New Delhi: Delhi Police today (July 3, 2004) arrested a key accused in the murder of dacoit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi, ending his three-year evasion from the law.

Shravan, who is accused of having gone to jail in Dehradun impersonating the alleged killer Sher Singh Rana to prepare an alibi for him, was nabbed in Bihar's Jehanabad district, police sources said. Shravan, Rana's employee at his liquor shop in Dehradun, was the only one out of 12 accused whom police had failed to arrest since the high profile killing of the MP in July 2001 at her official 44, Ashoka Road residence in New Delhi.

Rana, who allegedly pulled the trigger, escaped in a sensational manner from high security Tihar Jail in February this year.

Rana had claimed that he had masterminded the killing to avenge the Behmai massacre of upper caste people in 1982 by Phoolan's gang.